[ASUADPi]

Boy and I glad I work in DoDEA. We have a powerful union, awesome pay, pretty decent benefits and small class sizes.

That being said, I have worked public school and what the states are doing is downright pathetic! I remember when Napalitano was governor she pissed the republicans off so much as everytime they tried to send her a budget that included an excessive amount of cuts to education, she sent it back and told them to "cut from someplace else". She advocated for education. But yet when Brewer took over, the first thing she made cuts too, education.

I find it so pathetic that we live in a country that has these insane rules for teachers and requirements for teachers to meet, yet we do not put our money where our mouths are. We would rather continue to fund a going on 12 year war. (Just an FYI, I'm not saying don't fund the military, but this war in Afghanistan/Iraq is beyond old now, we just need to bring our men and women home).

I only have 15 kids in my room, but even 15 I don't feel like I'm doing my job sufficiently. I've got a kid who doesn't know his alphabet all the way to a child who is reading/comprehending at a 3rd grade level with everything in between. I have like 5 kids on medication in my class (adhd). I cannot imagine having 55 first graders with all of that. I'd lose my frickin mind and probably say "screw education".

The reality is, teachers don't get into teaching for the money, but we would like to be valued for what we do. We would like to be able to survive without having to take out personal loans or have 2nd/3rd jobs to make ends meat. If I went to public, I would take about a 27k paycut. With the cost of living in the town I'm living in, there is no way I could survive without having 2 or more roommates.

I say more power to the teachers of CPS. I may not be in CPS but as a fellow teacher I support you 100%!